Set against a backdrop of whining power saws and pounding hammers, scenic artists create self-contained worlds in which the Colorado Shakespeare Festival performances come to life. The painters wield brushes like magicians, transforming foam to stone, plain walls into gilded rooms, and new materials into antiques.

CU-Boulder’s Program in Environmental Design is launching a new minor, to begin this fall, with three possible tracks: design, history and theory, and planning. The minor is open to students of all disciplines and provides a foundation in theory, history, and methodology employed in fields such as architecture, planning, landscape architecture and related design disciplines.

The lamps that some environmental design students are creating this semester aren’t just pretty. They represent the students’ abilities to design, digitally render and use high-tech equipment to produce attractive, functional and marketable pieces -- requirements in today’s architecture field.

CU-Boulder environmental design students are helping an Indian reservation build energy-efficient housing. They're part of the Native American Sustainable Housing Initiative -- an academic and outreach program that is going strong and rececently was featured by South Dakota public television.

Diners at the Center for Community with an interest in fresh food and sustainability might swallow easier knowing that some of the ingredients they’re savoring were grown by CU-Boulder students just yards away.

Sara Bryant didn’t touch a piece of paper or even an Exacto knife for her model-building course last month.
The junior in environmental design and her classmates used the latest software and machinery to build prototype models of the CU-Boulder campus. Their tools included a computerized router, a laser cutter and a brand new 3-D printer.

In class one recent Monday, a group of CU-Boulder undergraduates in environmental design met with a city of Boulder official to review their building plans, soon to be constructed by the students at the local Admiral Burke Park. That’s when they learned of a hitch.

The student team can’t build on certain parts of the grounds—those that aren’t owned by the city, which is supporting the project.